boer

boer

Boer originally described Dutch farmers. However, it eventually evolved into describing 18th and 19th century Dutch settlers in southern Africa.

Boers, who identified themselves as Calvinists, began by settling at the Cape of Good Hope in Africa from 1652 to 1795. However, conflict with the British who ruled the area, resulting in the Great Trek from 1835 to 1837 where the settled at Transvaal Republic and the Orange Free State, known as the Boer Republics. However, the British eventually followed them northward, wresting control of the countries in 1877. The Boer Wars inevitably followed in 1880 and again in 1899 when the British won and oversaw the republics under suzerainty.

Starting in the early 1900s, the Boer people dispersed, immigrating to Argentine, Kenya, Mexico, New Mexico and Texas. Eventually the Boer Republics turned into provinces of other countries or divided into pieces.